Currently, any Texas voter can cast a ballot in GOP primaries. The party wants to limit eligibility to registered members.
The Republican Party of Texas filed a lawsuit against Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson on Thursday in a bid to restrict participation in the GOP’s primary elections to only voters registered with the party.
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, claims Texas’ open primaries violate the Republican Party’s First Amendment associational rights to choose party leaders. The GOP said in its suit that it would prefer the Legislature to pass a law allowing only registered party members to vote in primary elections, but that it could not wait for lawmakers to act.
“[G]iven the steps necessary to transition to a fully closed primary in an orderly fashion, the Party cannot continue to wait and risk further political inaction and delay that could lead to open primaries (or even a bridge election) in 2028 as well,” the lawsuit read.
The Secretary of State’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Why waste time changing the rules to limit who can declare affiliation (there is no party affiliation on voter registration in Texas) until they know the can close their primaries? I think this is just phase 1, collect underpants. We don’t know what phase 2 will be, but we can rest assured that phase 3 is profit [for the rich].